When I was a kid, I spent most of my free time drawing. Actually, I spent most of my class time doodling too. So I’m not surprised that my middle daughter (10) has an artistic streak. Girl loves to draw, so I am following my dear child and preparing our environment to help that avocation grow.
In the back corner of our property, there’s an old shed we never use. It’s been full of odds and ends for years, like most old sheds usually are, but for Christmas this year my hubby and I cleaned it out. We dubbed it the art shed. We placed a drafting table inside and some art supplies.
“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.” –Maria Montessori
I plan on placing this quote on the outside as a reminder for us passionately create!
Now there’s a lovely art shed for creating.
It’s certainly a space in progress. In the future I’d love to add a pottery wheel — wouldn’t that be a great pottery art shed? Plenty of room to courageously make messes. No drains to clog up with clay either! 🙂
In the meantime, we will be pursuing lots of sketching and watercolors.
Here is a great book we were asked to review from Timberdoodle that’s perfect for just this.
If you’re looking for an unintimidating, user-friendly guide to drawing, How to Draw Almost Every Day: An Illustrated Sourcebook is awesome.
The book has an extensive index in case you’re hoping to learn to draw something in particular be it cardigans or violins or Mt. Fuji. There’s 224 pages and 400 illustrations inside.
You can work through the book seasonally which is fun for holiday art.
Other subjects included range from food stuffs to botany or animals. And there’s a guide on choosing appropriate art tools too.
What I appreciate most about How to Draw Almost Every Day is that the lessons are short, simple and step by step. This book would work for a wide range of budding artists, I’d say, beginning with lower elementary yet still a great resource for adults even. If you need a quick illustration for a notebook or command card, I bet you could find something here… (such as frogs, germs, thermometers, birds, flowers and more).
There are even cute paper project ideas every few pages. Such a cute book to keep the kids busy, follow step by step directions and of course learn to draw! If you’re interested in picking up a copy check out Timberdoodle!
Cute 3 month old Rose 🙂
